WALTER AND LEONORE ANNENBERG PAVILION:From the Foundation Up

On July 20 and 21, 2007, Eisenhower Medical Center firmly cemented its future in the Coachella Valley. Literally. That is when 80 cement trucks from two local concrete companies made 600 trips to the hospital grounds to distribute 23 million pounds of concrete over 15 hours. The monumental event laid the foundation for the new Walter and Leonore Annenberg Pavilion and marked the largest concrete placement in the Coachella Valley to date.

“Pouring the foundation of the new Walter and Leonore Annenberg Pavilion is a momentous phase of construction — not only for Eisenhower Medical Center, but also the Coachella Valley,” says G. Aubrey Serfling, Eisenhower Medical Center President and Chief Executive Officer. “This milestone represents Eisenhower’s commitment to offering the best in patient care for years to come.”

Concrete trucks poured more than 600 loads of concrete, using six pumps to evenly distribute the concrete, which weaved its way around two layers of thick rebar crisscrossed and spaced two feet apart. Cold water and ice were added to the mix to prevent the concrete from overheating.With a careful monitoring of the temperature of each batch of concrete, each truck had only 90 minutes from the time it left the concrete plant to the time it poured the concrete—anything longer would require the return of a full truck back to the plant for a new batch of concrete.

Anchor bolts, three inches in diameter and seven feet in length, were placed at all gridline locations to bolt the steel structure to the foundation, a seismic regulation. The structure will meet all state requirements for seismic safety mandated by Senate Bill 1953. Sample batches of concrete were tested and approved by three engineering firms as well as the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development. Engineers were also on site during the concrete pour.

Ground was broken for the $212.5 million Walter and Leonore Annenberg Pavilion in January 2007 as part of Campaign Eisenhower Phase Two. The 160-bed, 250,000 square foot structure is slated to open in 2009 and is Eisenhower Medical Center’s largest project to date.

The new Annenberg Pavilion will house 126 inpatient beds on the second, third and fourth levels with each of the patient rooms fully equipped with the latest monitoring capabilities and stateof- the-art medication dispensing technologies. The ground level will house 34 beds in the critical care units (Intensive Care Unit, Coronary Care Unit, Cardiac Surgical Unit), while the lower level will house the hospital cafeteria, Information Systems, Environmental Services, Nutritional Services and the Materials Management departments.